The present application relates to a shoulder strap that is designed for use with any type of bag that is typically carried over one's shoulder.
Carrying a bag over one's shoulder can cause great stress to the user's back, neck, shoulder, or side. To minimize the stress imposed upon the user's body, particularly when the contents of the bag are somewhat heavy, the present invention affords a shoulder strap that will reduce the stress applied to the user's body. Consequently, the shoulder strap will be much more comfortable for users.
Others have designed shoulder strap assemblies with this in mind, but none achieves this objective with a simplified, effective construction that is durable.
For instance, U.S. Patent Application Publ. No. 2007/0261213 describes a shock absorbing shoulder strap that utilizes elastic half-straps that are coupled to the shoulder pad itself. This construction leaves the elastic component vulnerable to unnecessary wear, because the elastic component is exposed during use. Similar deficient constructions are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,158,636, 5,544,795, 5,450,995, and 5,411,194.
While the strap design of U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,102 avoids exposure of the elastic component, the solution described in this reference is achieved by integrating the elastic component into a unitary multilaminar construction of the shoulder pad per se. This design involves the use of substantially all elastic materials in the construction of the shoulder pad, including outer layers of soft stretchable materials, stretchable padding materials, and an internal elastic member that is covered by the outer layers. The design and construction of this shoulder pad is relatively complicated given that the entire should pad itself is elastic. Moreover, the entire shoulder pad will expand and contract during use. This may become uncomfortable to the user, because it may result in shifting or bunching of the user's clothing.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other deficiencies in the art